Facebook for beginners

Here are instructions for you to use to get onto Facebook, create your account, and hook-up with friends and groups. All you need for this is the obvious: a computer with an internet connection!

Where do I start?

I’ll guide you through the following tasks:

• Creating your Facebook account
• Finding friends
• Joining groups

Creating your Facebook account

First, you need to go online and open a web browser. For preference, and your own safety and security, I recommend Firefox (available by clicking here). One of the nice things about Firefox is the tab pages, which you can create by pressing Ctrl+T (on windows) or Apple Button and T (on the Mac).

Second, click here to open the Facebook home page.

Now, you can begin the sign-up process by filling-in these fields:

It’s important to enter the information correctly for if you forget your password, you will be asked questions about this information.

When you’re done, click the green Sign Up button.

A confirmation displays, where you have to enter the words on the page. This is known as a “Captcha” and will contain different words for each sign-up.

If you can’t read the words, you can click audio captcha to have the computer play an audio file of what the words are.

Again, when you’re finished, click the green  Sign Up button.

A confirm email message now displays:

You should now go and check your email for a message from Facebook. It’ll look something like this:

Click the address in the email (or cut and paste it into your browser) and the process continues with this page:

If you want to find friends using your email account addressbook, then enter your email and password, then click the blue Find Friends button.

Otherwise, click Skip this step.

The Profile Info page displays:

Again, fill this out if you like, otherwise, click Skip this step.

The final step displays thus:

You can enter the name of your city here to join a network of people from where you live. I’ve never used it myself, but it may be useful.

Click Skip this step to finish.

…and you’re done.

Finding friends

Up at the top right of your Facebook screen, there is a search box:

Simply type the full name of the person you want to find, and press the Enter key on your keyboard.

A results page appears with all the people with that name.

When you’ve found the right person, click Add as friend, found on the right of the person’s picture and description:

A confirmation message displays, that lets you know that the friend has to confirm you know each other. If you’d like to send a personal message too, click Add a personal message…

When you’re ready, click Add Friend.

Joining Groups

A group is easiest to imagine as a big meeting room where people who like a particular thing can meet, exchange information, photos and all sorts of other things.

To join a group, just type the name in the search field like you did above and follow the same instructions.